This is all well and good, and unsurprisingly, I agree whole-heartedly with this point and with his view that the Home Office budget, despite this threat of terrorism on our shores being so prevalent, should not have been frozen for the next three years. This, also taking into account the proposed Metropolitan Police shake-up and the farcical immigration services does seem rather foolish with hindsight
But - and this is the point - Cameron is still not offering any solid suggestions or options that would make the public see the Conservatives as a viable alternative, especially at the time when the British public is yearning for change. The advent of Cameron was meant to dissolve the whole idea of 'Punch and Judy' politics but surely, by not offering the alternatives he is just perpetuating the stereotype!
Don't think however, that I am completely blind to the reasons behind this.
Cameron is waiting for Blair's reign to end - waiting for the ageing Gordon Brown take the hot-seat. Cameron's plan is simple; spend his time making the party more accessible to the public, what with his pledges to increase female and black MPs being just one example. Whilst making the party more palatable, something that the public may actually vote for. Cameron's leaning towards a greener society has definitely made the party's prestige grow. The Tories are therefore also more attractive to environment-friendly younger voters, in addition to his 'hug-a-hoodie' and Jaffa cakes campaign. I guarantee that all those research groups and policy making boards, which are experiencing a barren spell of late will all come to the fore once Brown has come to power.
Blair, because he wants to see his policies through, will not give Brown anything to work with. And with time ebbing away towards the next general election the choice will be made easy. The youthful Cameron who has been accepted by the younger population, equipped with his new-found policies, which would have taken so long because they are so good. And the beyond-his-sell-by-date Brown, who has had no time to familiarise himself with the electorate, with no policies and a Labour Party, which presumably would have imploded by that point and faced with a public that has become completely disillusioned.
This in theory sounds perfect. However, in the wake of Cameron criticism that he is being too bold attacking the government so soon after last week's terrorist attack attempt, he may have shot himself in the foot. But now it's said he should not be halted but it must be backed up with some idea of policy or the public will be lost. Point out the flaws and point out what they should be doing.
Leave alone the new designs for the Conservative Party Logo - by the way a tree is a bad idea - and bring forward a couple of nice policy drafts and put Labour under some real pressure - Cameron your time has come, although slightly too early.
Thomas L. Blair is a sociologist and political blogger on the Chronicleworld 'for creative renewal in Black Britain and Afro-Europe'. His work is honoured in the British Library's archive of "social, historic and culturally significant web-based material from the UK domain". He won top prize in the blogging competition on The-Latest.
Sumantra Maitra is a freelance journalist from Mumbai, India. He is a correspondent for All Sports magazine, and a foreign affairs blogger for the Washington Examiner. He has written articles for news website Merinews.com and other regional publications. Sumantra runs a blog at DailyWorldWatch.wordpress.com. He provided exclusive eyewitness reports for The-Latest on the Mumbai bombings of 2008.
Brian Usher is photography consultant for The-Latest.Com. He is a highly experienced editorial and commercial photographer whose work has been published throughout the world, appearing in many well known magazines and newspapers. Brian has featured in several books and has been a writer for the Royal Photographic Society magazine.
Heidi Kingstone has spent time in Afghanistan reporting for a number of publications. Her work has appeared in the Financial Times, The Spectator, The Sunday Times and other international journals. She has also reported from places like Iraq, Rwanda, Lebanon, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Kenya. Heidi is The-Latest's Editor at large.
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